Summary

One of my favorite games of all time

The Good

This game was a staple of my childhood and is one of my absolute favorites. My parents bought me this game to play on my Macintosh LC III and I was addicted. I also ran it on my black & white PowerBook 100, and it was still fun. I still have the original two floppy disks and the user manual with the passwords/codes for the different levels (a form of copy protection). I remember bringing this game to school when I was in second or third grade and my teacher making copies of the manual and installing the game on all the computers in our Mac lab and the Macs in the classroom. It was the most popular game for students for years and years (until Pocket Tanks was released, and after that, we installed CounterStrike on the new computers that ran Windows).

This game ran without issues on all my Macintosh computers. It was the first piece of software I would install after getting a new machine. It ran on all my machines that ran the classic Mac OS (LC III, LC 580, Performa 6290cd, Power Macintosh 5200, Power Macintosh 5400, Power Macintosh G3 Blue & White, iMac DV, PowerBook 100, PowerBook 1400cs, PowerBook 3400c, and iBook DV) and thanks to the Classic emulator in Mac OS X, I was able to run it on all my newer PowerPC-based machines running Mac OS X. For a while, I couldn't run the game on my Intel-based Macs but there is an Java-based emulator/port that allows the original Lemmings and Oh No! More Lemmings to run on Mac OS X (PowerPC and Intel machines). Unfortunately, the Java port uses the Windows versions of the game and not the Macintosh version, so the graphics aren't as crisp and clean, but at least the game lives on. I also play the original version using the SheepShaver virtual machine for Mac OS X/Linux/Windows.

The Bad

On smaller displays, or computers that can't run the game full screen (only in a window, which is usually small and can't be resized), it is hard to clearly see the picture on the buttons to assign jobs/tasks to Lemmings/blow them up/speed up/etc. This wouldn't be a problem except that, unlike versions for other platforms, you can't hover your pointer over the button to see what the button does. You have to just hope you remember what the button does (the pictures don't clearly illustrate this) and blindly click.

The Bottom Line

It is a nostalgic look back at a time when games were simple but engaging, and weren't dependent on 3D/graphics/multiplayer over network, etc. This was a game that someone of any age and any level of computer skills could play for hours and enjoy themselves. It ran on old hardware, black and white displays, all-in-one Macs that had incredibly low screen resolutions, and always worked. The soundtrack gets stuck in your head and you'll find yourself humming it all the time. It's a great game. Hopefully they eventually will port it to the iPhone/iPad and Android OS.